Tape reel #2 was erased and reused on May 20,
and tape reel #4 from this session is missing
with no indication of what happened to it.
Reel #2 would have included some takes of On
A Snowy Christmas Night and the first six
takes of Winter Wonderland.
Reel #4 would have included outtakes of The
First Noel and The Wonderful World Of Christmas.
An explanation why tape reel #4 may have been
re-used or dumped, could be that Elvis may not
have participated in the sessions and only overdubbed
his voice. There would be no reason to keep the
instrumental outtakes once the masters had been
identified.
On 'Today, Tomorrow & Forever' it wrongly
lists Take 9 of I'll Be Home On Christmas Day
from this session as being released on there,
when it is actually Take 9 from June 10.
Elvis sang an extra verse on the first few takes
of I'll Be Home On Christmas Day, and then
that verse was omitted from Take 4 onwards, because
Felton Jarvis said the song was too long. The
Master was then cut (Take 8) without that verse
being included.
On June 10 Elvis re-recorded I'll Be Home
On Christmas Day again in a different tempo,
but started off using the same (unused) verse.
After take 9 someone decided, again for whatever
reason, to leave out that verse, and the (Alternate)
master was cut without this verse. The extra verse
is as follows:-
"It's been so long since I've seen little
John, Michelle, Christine and Karen;
(I) almost forgot all the presents that I bought,
a purse for little sister to carry.
(If) I could set aside my pride, I'd just be on
my way,
I'd be on that (Catch that) train tomorrow, I'll
be home on Christmas Day".
The Lord's Prayer on 'Essential Elvis
Volume 4' has the musicians way back in the mix
and has dialogue edited in from before Take 6
of A Thing Called Love (May
19), along with a line from You Better
Run edited in.
On A Snowy Christmas Night on the bootleg
"O Come All Ye Faithful" is probably
just the left channel only (centred) of a stereo
acetate of the fully overdubbed master. By eliminating
the right channel on the same track on 'Christmas
Peace' I was able to get the exact same results.
This is possible because backing vocals (and occasionally
strings) tend to be panned 100% right on the original
mixes from these sessions, so you can often eliminate
them by cutting out the right channel, with no
discernable bleed.
A fake extended version of Don't Think Twice,
It's All Right can be found on the old bootleg
LP box "Behind Closed Doors" and more
recently a longer faked version can be found on
the Madison bootleg "Don't Think Twice".
Take 2 of O Come All Ye Faithful was first
released in 1982 on 'Memories Of Christmas' at
which point it was issued a different serial number
(MWA5 9085) to the Master (APA4 1270). This was
because it was spliced with Take 1.
A fake 'Vocal Only' version of The Wonderful
World Of Christmas has been doing the rounds
amongst collectors, but this is just one channel
removed from a binaural mix, and then centred.
This gives the effect of having no backing singers
of musicians present.
In March of 2007, Sony decided to go through all of Elvis' masters. They retransferred everything and remastered all tracks including repairing as many clicks, pops, bad edits and dropouts as they could. They have used these newly mastered recordings on their new releases since 2007 including budget soundtracks, 'Legacy' releases, the 30 disc 'Complete Elvis Presley Masters' collection and the Franklin Mint package.
Thanks to Michael Schemies for pointing out the
mistake regarding I'll Be Home On Christmas
Day on 'Today, Tomorrow & Forever'.
Thanks to Colin Bryant for pointing out the European
pressing of 'Christmas Duets' containing the duet
with Hanna Pakarinen from Finland.
